StockPhotoTalk | Special Interest Blog

QuickLinks For 2008-02-29

• This is just stupid, Major League Baseball imposes restrictions for online content:
  MLB has become the latest property to impose limits on news outlets posting online content developed at league facilities, following the NFL´s hotly debated 45-second rule.
  In a new credentialing terms-and-conditions sheet MLB is limiting news organizations from posting more than 120 seconds a day of audio or video from league facilities, with game highlights restricted only to rights holders that have a separate rights deal with MLB Advanced Media.

Shutterstock: raising fees effective March 10, 2008

Just in from Shutterstock, the new prices are up 25,16% - 28,14%:

And: "Our three Enhanced License products will also undergo a price increase on the same date, though these products are not eligible for Automatic Renew".

Related:

• Shutterstock testing new price scheme, contributors payment goes up
  (Feb. 25, 2008)

QuickLinks For 2008-02-28

• New 52Wk Low this week for A21 of $0.01 resp. $0.012 with a Market Cap of $1,32M:
  Down from $ 0.80 (May 15, 2006); $ 0.34 (Aug. 22, 2006); $0.30 (Nov. 21, 2006); $0.271 (April 03, 2007); $0.25 (May 15, 2007); $0.075 (Aug. 10, 2007) and $0.055 (Nov. 12, 2007).
  Related:
  
  • a21: "Strategic Alternatives" (Feb. 15, 2008)
  • a21 Organizes for Growth (Feb. 15, 2008)

• Estimates Put Internet Advertising at $21 Billion in U.S., $45 Billion Globally:
  The Interactive Advertising Bureau has a preliminary estimate of $21.1 billion for U.S. Internet ads in 2007, a 25 percent increase over 2006. (For the fourth quarter of 2007, it is estimating $5.7 billion for the size of the industry, up from $5.2 billion in the third quarter).
  Meanwhile, the Kelsey Group puts U.S. Internet advertising at $22.5 billion for 2007 (IDC, as previously reported, is at the high end with $25.5 billion).
  The Kelsey Group also provides a global estimate of $45 billion for Internet advertising, which is 7.4% of the total $600 billion global advertising market.
  Erick Schonfeld/TechCrunch.

New Getty Images SEC Filing

Full Overview of the awaited SEC filing and its parts and of the Agreement and Plan of Merger:

• Complete document here, short version here.
• "The Company" = Getty Images.
• "Parent": Abe Investment, L.P. (*)

Excerpt from Entry into a material definitive agreement:

The Merger Agreement contains restrictions on the Company´s ability to solicit third party proposals or provide information to, or participate in discussions or negotiations with, third parties regarding competing proposals.

These restrictions are not applicable until April 4, 2008, however, with respect to a certain party with whom the Company has previously engaged in discussions with respect to a proposal.

Deutsche Bank Equity Research on Getty Images

In a short research note published yesterday, Deutsche Bank Equity Research reports -- very likely for the last time like the analysts of Kaufmann Bros. and Robert W. Baird -- on Getty Images:

 

Getty Images {Closing Price: USD 31.67, Target Price: USD 34.00, Recommendation: HOLD}.

• 39% Premium For Getty Images Purchase: Despite industry articles suggesting lackluster interest for the auction of Getty Images above $1.6bn just two weeks ago, private equity firm Hellman & Friedman (also known for privatizing DoubleClick and subsequently selling to Google 2yrs later) agreed to acquire Getty for $2.4bn (+debt), or $34/share in cash.

The $34 share price represents a 39% premium to the Friday closing price, which was much higher than our expectation of a $25 price tag.

QuickLinks For 2008-02-26

• Jonathan Klein spent some time with me this morning:
  We do want to focus on more long-term growth and we want to put more into our consumer offering and we think that music or footage or multimedia can grow faster. But we will still have the priority of stabilizing that traditional creative stills business, which showed some improvement in the fourth quarter sequentially but remains subject to those broader issues. [...]
  It was a competitive deal, and the proxy document that will come out in the next several weeks will have a lot of detail on that.
  Seattle-Post Intelligencer/John Cook, Q&A with Getty Images´Jonathan Klein.

Reuters Interview with Getty Images´CEO Jonathan Klein: "Overall systemic issues"

Reuters finally interviewed Jonathan Klein:

But a shift of advertising to the Internet and the growth of text-only paid-search advertisements led to a decline in volume for Getty´s rights-managed still pictures.
"The overall systemic issues around less print advertising, more online communication, and significant amount of spend on text-based search, which we hate because it does not have pictures, is not going to change because our ownership changes," Jonathan Klein said in an interview.
"But in the private environment we may be able to focus a little more on longer term growth", he said. "We´ll be able to continue to do what we´re doing without having the public glare every three months."
Klein said the board had at least one other bid to consider, but picked Hellman & Friedman since the price carried a strong premium and the deal did not hinge on financing conditions. He would not identify other bidders.

Reuters in "Private equity to buy Getty Images for $2.1 bln" (two pages).

Shutterstock testing new price scheme, contributors payment goes up

"We wanted to let you know":

We´ve been working hard on the details of your 2008 commission increase. The final stage of this process is to test new price points for Shutterstock products, which we will do over the next two months. We will then evaluate the results of these price increases and finalize your raise. We expect to be able to announce the raise to you during the first two weeks of May.

This year we will also be experimenting with some "starter" products that offer a less expensive entry point to account holders that have never purchased from us before. These new products will offer a brief trial of our user-friendly subscription model, so the account holder can experience first hand all of the benefits of being a paid Shutterstock customer.

QuickLinks For 2008-02-25

• Good bye all you conference calls and analyst questions:
  Troy Mastin, an analyst at William Blair & Co., said Getty´s core business of selling more-expensive photographs to newspapers and magazines had declined as those media struggled with the rise of Internet content. Sales to direct mail and brochure customers also cooled.
  At the same time, though, Getty´s newer businesses grew faster [iStock]. Mastin said customers who once bought the low end of Getty´s core stock photos moved over to buy the even cheaper royalty-free photos. And Getty´s editorial offerings - news, sports and celebrity photos for the media - grew, as did its video footage business.
  While Getty didn´t give a specific reason for its January decision to seek a buyer, Mastin said it was likely because Getty felt Wall Street was paying more attention to the stagnating core business than to its emerging segments. "Public markets didn´t seem willing to consider (Getty´s businesses) separately", Mastin said.
  Seattle Post-Intelligencer/Jessica Mintz in "Getty Images agrees to be bought".

Getty Images to be sold to private equity firm Hellman & Friedman for about $2.4 billion

Full text of Getty Images´ press release here in the press release section.

The opinion of the NYSE over the course of this day (enjoy it, as long as Getty Images is a public company).